Biography

Joined an ancient Prussian lodge of the Freemasons in 1923.

A student of Max Reinhardt and first on the stage in 1907 at the Berlin Schillertheater..

A broadcasting pioneer, as reporter, commentator and director of Funk-Stunde Berlin in 1924, the first radio station in Germany. In 1954, he was appointed first director of Sender Freies Berlin, a position he occupied until 1958.

Due to his association with Weimar politics, he was arrested by the Gestapo, placed in 'protective custody' and spent six weeks interned at Oranienburg concentration camp in 1933. He subsequently emigrated to Switzerland, but returned to Germany in 1939. Having apparently arrived at an arrangement with the Nazi regime, he worked on several propaganda films as a screenwriter, notably collaborating with Veit Harlan.

Alfred Braun achieved his greatest popularity as a broadcasting pioneer. On October 29, 1923 the first official entertainment program was broadcasted and Alfred Braun worked as an announcer and later as a director too. Especially his live reports to Gustav Stresemann's burial and to Thomas Mann's Nobel Prize award made him very popular in Germany.